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Peter Gabriel – Recording Compendium: Introduction
Within the Genesis family, there is hardly another musician, who has been that active in terms of songwriting and recording as is Peter Gabriel. It’s nearly impossible to get an overview about stuff he has written and recorded. We try to bring some light into the dark with this series of Recording Compendiums.
There is no other Genesis artist who was and is as active in terms of songwriting and recording as Peter Gabriel. On the one hand, that’s very exciting, but on the other hand, it’s almost impossible to keep track of everything that’s out there apart from the well-known album material. With this Recording Compendium we are trying to shed some light on individual album periods as meticulously as possible. It’s mainly about studio material, but also about non-album tracks that were only played live. Additional information is limited to the most essential details, such as recording and release dates and the best current source. Bootlegs are also included. We do not provide detailed descriptions of individual tracks/versions.
Structure
The tracks are usually listed in chronological order of creation (not release date!). The sections usually end after the tours for the respective albums and start from the period when new material was being worked on.
Each listing is subdivided as follows:
1. Collaborations following the previous tour
2. Demos
3. Album Tracks
4. Outtakes that were created during the album sessions but didn’t make it onto the album
5. different versions of the album tracks and outtakes
6. Live tracks of which no published studio versions are known to date
7. official Live-releases
8. Collaborations that have been created up to the end of the tour.
Due to the sometimes very dense sequence of publications, this structure cannot always be applied consistently. In addition, we consider all parts to be “living documents” that can be further developed at any time.
Explanation of terms and formatting
There are different versions of many tracks. Additions to the track name were recorded according to the following scheme:
● (Addition in round brackets and bold font) = officially published title addition
● [Addition in square brackets and normal font] = unofficially used title addition – used for differentiation in this list
To differentiate between them, all versions of individual tracks were listed with additional names. If there was no official title addition, it was marked as follows:
● [demo] = Song or version of a track that was recorded in the embryo stage
● [original version] = different version/recording of a track that was professionally recorded before its album release
● [original mix] = more different mix of the album track that was already released before the album release
● [alternate mix] = slightly different mix of a track
● [instrumental] = Track without vocal tracks, but otherwise corresponds to the album version
● [instrumental mix] = Track without vocal track, mixed differently than the original
● [full length version] = Track in longer version than the album version
● [edit] = shortened version of the album version in the same mix
● [remix] = remixed/edited version